1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an animal chew product comprising of dehydrated sweet potatoes and yams, and methods for using and making the same.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is well known that animals benefit from chewing bones and other hard objects. Dogs chew on bones for jaw exercise and teeth cleaning. Rabbits and rodents chew on hard objects to clean and trim their teeth. Birds peck on hard objects to strengthen and maintain proper beak size.
Accordingly, many animal chew products are available and are made from a variety of materials. For example, many chew products for use with dogs are made from animal-derived materials such as pigs ears, beef jerky, smoked hooves, pigs skins, and cattle rawhide. In addition, there are a large number of animal chew products made from synthetic materials, such as rubber or nylon, and from non synthetic materials.
The prior art animal products have several drawbacks. The chew products that are derived from animal materials have presented health problems for both animals and humans. These products have posed risk of bacterial infection such as Salmonella infantis and other diseases. Humans who handle such products may become infected and suffer life threatening injury.
Although sanitized animal-derived chew products and chew products made from synthetic material do not present the foregoing bacterial health risk, they nevertheless can cause significant injury to the animal. Many indigestible objects are given to animals to chew and although the animals may enjoy chewing on these items, the objects are often swallowed in whole or part. Once swallowed, these objects or their fragments can adversely affect the animal""s digestive tract causing discomfort and possible life-threatening injury.. For example pieces of rawhide can become lodged in an animal""s throat causing choking. Also, frequent ingestion of rawhide can cause gastric irritation resulting in vomiting. Indigestible synthetic chews and undigested rawhide can become lodged in the animal""s digestive passages and interfere with the normal digestion of food and elimination of waste. Consequently, the lodged materials must be removed surgically.
As a response to sector of the above issues, digestible dog chew products have been developed. These digestible chew products may be composed of synthetic digestive fiber, highly processed and refined vegetable-based matter, granulated starch. casein, or a combination of any of the foregoing. Such chew products are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 6,274,182; 6,200,616; 6,093,427; 5,941,197; and 5,827,565. The foregoing patents disclose chew products made of the foregoing materials and methods making these products. The methods all use a raised temperature injection molding apparatus to form shapes that a canine would masticate. These digestible chews, however, contain substantial amounts of non-nutritive materials and require favoring and nutritional supplementation.
While all of the above chew products, animal-derived, synthetic, and digestible, may provide jaw exercise and teeth cleaning benefits, they lack fiber, may result in health concerns to animals and humans, or are not inherently nutritious. Furthermore, more and more animal owners prefer to provide all-natural products to their animals. Therefore, a need exists for a new animal chew product that provides nutrition without the use of additives or nutritional supplements, is easily digestible, aids in dental health, and is safe to both animals and humans and methods for making the same.
An animal chew product comprising a portion of a dehydrated vegetable, said vegetable selected from a sweet potato and a yam, and method for using and making the product.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken into conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.